Belize - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Here is the stuff you may or may not want to know about our trip. Read at your own risk ;):

The Good:

See all of my other posts about Belize starting here: 

Belize Trip Blog.

The Bad:

Sunburn... 

We are a pale couple... and we know we have to take GREAT care of our skin. This photo is just funny and not a particularly painful patch of burned skin. But I did have an EXTREMELY painful burn on my bum/upper thigh after snorkeling (see the full post about that here). Thank goodness I know my skin well enough that in addition to buying sunscreen, I bought aloe (to help with burns at night, etc.) AND sunscreen with aloe in it (for when we have to be out in the sun despite the sunburn). Brilliant if I do say so myself. All went to great use!!

Bug bites...

You decide what on Earth bit me.

I got bit everywhere. Bugs LOVE me... the feeling is NOT mutual.

and some more bites. Greeeaaat.

The Ugly:

Belizean Mosquitos...

One of the first nights in Belize I got a LARGE mosquito bite. Not awesome. Super itchy.

Heat rash...

Not cute. Better yet. Its the result of wiping sweat off my face from our tour the day before. Gross. Luckily for me it usually does away in about 2 days.

Why are there no pictures of B's bites? Oh because he maybe got one... and I couldn't find it to get a picture because his bites don't itch or hurt. UGH. JEALOUS. All in all, B and I had a wonderful trip to Belize! :)

Saturday - Travel Day back to CLT / Day 8 in Belize

We opted to pay a little bit extra to fly back to Belize City (BZE) from Caye Caulker. I am SOOO glad we did. We took in AMAZING views on our 10 minute flight and it was just cool experience From plastic reusable boarding passes, to being able to use your cell the whole time, to being able to see the pilot while flying!!

Walking out to board the plane. With our plastic boarding passes.

Sitting across from my love.

Crossbody seat belts on an airplane...? WHAT?

Goodbye Caribbean! 

Leaving our small Tropic Air airplane.

The high tech USairways arrival/departure board. Also apparently I looked like a security risk because I got flagged two different times inside this tiny airport and "SSSS" was all over my ticket. The things we do for airplane safety. When we saw 5 airport workers put on rubber gloves things got real. Don't worry though, I was bomb powder free (or whatever those little hand swabs test for).

Vacation over. Back in Charlotte.

Mainland Belize Tour Friday / Day 7 in Belize

When we were planning our trip a few months prior, we knew we wanted to do two things; I wanted to snorkel (Click here to see that post.) and B wanted to visit Mayan Ruins. 

We had seen many tours online but decided to wait to book until we compared prices once on the island and I'm so glad we did. On our way into town Sunday morning, we ran into one of the families who was just getting ready to head back to the states. We asked them about their trip, what they did on and off the island.  They said they went on two amazing day tours with King David. "King David, eh?" "Yeah, from AlTourNative Belize Services." He told us he had a Facebook page as well. A couple of hours later we did some googling/facebooking and sent off a message. Shortly after we had found out availability/the best days to go and booked our trip for Friday. 

We woke and caught the first water taxi from Caye Caulker back to Belize City where King David was waiting for us! We hopped in the car and were off on our adventures. We were planning to do the two areas of Mayan Ruins and then a zip line excursion. After a couple hours of driving to the location, a brief history of Belize, and a few hundred steps higher, the truth resurfaced that someone I know and love dearly does not like heights at all. With our feet firmly planted on the top of the ruins, B and I decided zip lining would not be happening and King David was totally okay with our last minute change of plans to head to the Belize Zoo instead. He made sure we made it back in time for the last water taxi back to Caye Caulker. 

King David took some great pictures for us. We will forever appreciate these pictures and the memories of that day.

A great picture taken upon the suggestion of our tour guide at Xunantunich.

The beautiful Belizean landscape as a background.

Beautiful picture at the ruins.

A great picture taken upon the suggestion of our tour guide.

Cahal Pech.

Belize flag outside of the restaurant.

Some sort of awesome foreign cat.

Toucan.

Puma.

Jaguar.

On our way into lunch which was filling, delicious, and so cheap!

Trip advisor is apparently a big deal for tour guides. So if you ever go be sure to book with King David and leave him a great review if you enjoy your trip! Seriously, he was awesome.

After a long, hot, fun-filled, tiring day, we took the water taxi home and decided we were so glad that would be the last time we took it.

At Rainbow Paradise for our final dinner on the island.

Snorkel Tour Thursday / Day 6 in Belize

Per a suggestion, we opted to take our snorkel tour with Raggamuffin Tours. (A guy I know who lives in Belize -- on a farm somewhere in Belize -- suggested a lot of these things to me -- this tour and staying in Caye Caulker in general were just a few of his suggests we took and I have written about). Our snorkel tour started around 10:30am and we went out with about 18 other people. It took about 45 minutes on our sailboat to get out to our first stop: 

Our first stop was coral garden: the tour guides talked about all the different types of coral we were seeing (lettuce looking, brain looking, etc.) B bought this Sony Underwater Cam which worked great but I was just continually snapping picture because it was hard for me to see the screen under the water and I didn't want taking pictures to take away form the experience.

The purple in the photo was the lettuce looking flat coral that flowed with the movement of the water.

B snorkeling.

Me snorkeling.

Please note: I wore a t-shirt to avoid getting burned... but see the areas above the water and the super white areas you can see? (aka my bum and upper thigh)?... because after this day trip, they were not white... they were red. {This girl got FRIED. Not to self: snorkel with a shirt, shorts, and a hat on. Good grief}.

Our second stop was "shark and ray alley" known for its {duh} sharks and sting rays. They have a feeding frenzy off of the barnacles attached to the bottom of anchored boats and get very close to you. It was an AMAZING experience.

Sting rays and sharks as promised.

SO COOL!

Oh you know, just making memories with my guy!

Our last stop was: Hol Chan Marine Reserve, this coral reef area is the 2nd largest only to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. {Pretty cool to have seen the 2 largest barrier reefs in existence!}

Just a cute little sea turtle! {Something I didn't see in Australia!} OBSESSED!

This is arguably the best photo I took while snorkeling, an adorable turtle going up to the surface for air :)

Not only do they serve you lunch and such, on the way home we got to sail and enjoy some shrimp ceviche and of course, rum punch! SO FUN after a great day of snorkeling. On this part we also talked with a California couple about there vacation as well which was quite different from ours, starting in Guatemala. Overall it was a wonderful tour and day! I

We went to dinner at Rose's. We had walked by this restaurant previous days, saw the raw fish and meat sitting out in front, and were a little hesitant to eat here. But, upon talking with some of our local guides on the sailboat who said it is one of there top 3, we decided to hit it up. We are not huge fish fans and opted for one of the meat options (I think chicken). It was fun and delicious.

Tuesday, the Peaceful Island Returns / Day 4 in Belize

Again we spent the morning/better part of the day maxing and relaxing in the... shade. It was wondrous!

 Our very cool pergola, Belize style.

I'm itching to have 2 of these built by a certain someone for our backyard... but you might never find me once they are done! best loungers ever. Sturdy, comfy. AMAZING!

After we freshened up we walked to find a recommended spot for some tacos and margaritas. It was called 88 degrees West. We sat outside so we could take in this GORGEOUS sunset view. Side note... because we were sitting outside service was TERRIBLE. We ordered a burrito to split whole we enjoyed a pitcher and it never came out to us even after we reminded her twice... I think it was a fluke and service seemed much better inside... but lets just say she didn't get much of a tip {and I felt a little bad about it}.

Selfies galore on this trip y'all... none else around to take any for us.

Love this guy!

Wandering Wednesday / Day 5 in Belize

This was our last maxin' and relaxin' day. We spent the morning by the pool {again, I know} but this was our last day to wander the island before 2 fun filled days or tours. 

 These are speedy little buggers. They very in size from tiny to pretty darn big. This guy was M/L :) This iguana was on our property so I was able to slowly creep up on him and get a pic while we were heading in to get ready to leave the property for a while and go into to the busier part of town (about a 10-15 minute walk). 

We wandered down to walk around what's known as "the split". Caye Caulker was split in 2 by a hurricane years ago and it has become a popular swimming and tourist area on the small island. 

 A view of the swimming area and break to the right out to the vast Carribean... oh, and one of MANY golf carts.

 Another Caribbean selfie.

 Good news, on our walk to another recommended restaurant (Habaneros), we found a map on pretty much our last day relaxing on the island, go figure. This thing would have been helpful 5 days ago!

We had an insane meal at Habaneros. I was super impressed by the Frozen Mint Mojito. {I must figure out how to replicate this for myself this summer asap}. We then had some sort of chorizo dip and these other 2 entrees that were fabulous as well. {If you can't tell i think this was my favorite meal of the whole trip; and the most expensive too -- still a deal for all we got but expensive compared to other Belizean restaurants}. YUMMY.

Easter Monday and a Day at the Dock / Day 3 in Belize

In Belize, they honor the Easter holiday with Easter Monday to really observe and enjoy time together with family and friends, etc. This meant some businesses were closed but we made do and walked further to find some yummy open restaurants. We didn't expect the island to be so busy when we got there there on Saturday but because it was an extended holiday weekend, it made way more sense. Due to the extended holiday, many visitors from Belize City come to visit and party and {happily} it returns to the quiet beach town by Tuesday. Also, the school children were out of school for 2 weeks vacation; so even though we walked past the elementary school multiple times daily, we never saw any children there. 

Our pier is seen below. It is new and beautiful... we laid and listened and watched the waves roll in. I'm not going to lie, we didn't actually swim in the ocean here. The water was very clear and fairly shallow and quite sea grassy {the feeling of that wrapping all around your legs as you kick, not my thing}.

Great views the other way too... but we were a little jealous that the neighboring docks had these great huts with hammocks and such which would have protected my fair skin that got slightly burned in spotty sections on this excursion. {Note to self, I need the purple kids sunscreen so I don't miss any spots... anyone else remember that?}

 A delightful morning ritual we created while there... If only we had the pool, weather, and trees here!!! Ahhhh :)

Aside from our visit to the dock, today was very similar to the day before (click here to read that post.) We again enjoyed the pool, sun, drinks, relaxing and each other {cheesy but true}.

It was hot (around 87 degrades Fahrenheit) and humid (felt like 93) every day of our late April vacation. At night we would wash off that sunscreen and get cleaned up to go out for dinner. Attire was very casual and there are varying types of restaurants throughout Caye Caulker. {I brought a few dresses but never put one on. I also took the advise I read somewhere on the internet, and left any accessories (aside from my daily staples) at home.} 

 We had a lovely dinner at the Happy Lobster. Unfortunately, it was not lobster season {major bummer for us lobster lovers}. They have delicious garlic shrimp though and pretty dec (as in short for decent) margaritas! {B loved this hot sauce so much so we brought home 2 bottles.}

This little guy met us for dinner too!! We really enjoyed that meal and walked home full and happy.